Big 'O' Above Oregon's Campus Painted Red Ahead of Rose Bowl CFP Game vs. Ohio State

The giant “O” on Skinner Butte at the University of Oregon, normally painted yellow, has been splattered with red paint ahead of the Ducks’ matchup with Ohio State in the Rose Bowl College Football Playoff quarterfinal on New Year’s Day.

Haleigh Kochanski of the Register-Guard reported that she “reached out to the Eugene Police Department about the vandalism but had not received a response as of early Tuesday morning.”

A “paint tray and other paraphernalia” were reportedly left behind at the scene.

Oregon and Ohio State already played once this season, a 32-31 victory for the Ducks in Eugene. That was part of Oregon’s fantastic debut season in the Big Ten, which resulted in a perfect record, a conference championship, wins over Boise State, Ohio State and Penn State and the top overall seed and a first-round bye in the CFP.

That Oregon has to face the Buckeyes in the quarterfinals, however—while lower seeds like Penn State and Texas ended up with far easier matchups in Boise State and Arizona State, respectively—has called into question the CFP’s format. Currently, the four highest-seeded conference champions get first-round byes, which this year was Oregon, Georgia, Boise State and Arizona State.

But that meant that lower seeds who had high rankings, like Penn State and Texas, ended up with easier CFP draws than Oregon. Penn State’s path to the championship round, potentially, will go through SMU, Boise State and either Georgia or Notre Dame.

Oregon, meanwhile, will have to get through Ohio State and either Texas (likely) or Arizona State. It’s arguable that, despite playing an extra game, the Nittany Lions have the easier path.

The solution would be to simply give the top four seeds to the four highest-ranked teams, though that may receive some pushback from the Big 12, ACC and non-Power 4 conferences. It would lead to a more balanced bracket, however.